No China link to local coronavirus cases: Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Pakistan has rushed to rescue of all-weather friend China, giving a clean chit to Beijing by announcing that patients impacted by Covid-19 in Pakistan were not transmitted from China and defending its decision not to airlift Pakistan students from Wuhan, the original epicentre of the virus.

These statements were issued by senior Pakistan government officials. Pakistan, in return, received an eight-member medical expert team from China over the weekend to assist Islamabad fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi welcomed the Chinese medical team at the Islamabad International Airport and thanked them for coming to Pakistan to help the country overcome the disease. "I would like to thank the Chinese people and the Chinese government...for going out of the way to support Pakistan and our effort to fight the Covid-19," he said.


"We have learned from you. We have stood by you, and you're standing with us. So this challenge has brought the peoples of China and Pakistan even closer. In this challenging time, the (Pakistani) people expected China to come forth and China has lived up to their expectations," the foreign minister told Chinese official news agency Xinhua.